My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

Archives for February 2019

Finally we are all starting to feel better, this cold season has been rough. I spent many days in denial of how sick I was but I had no energy and really needed to take some time to get better. There has also been a pretty good cold snap going on here so I have not been running outside at all.

Today I got up early hoping to run but just couldn’t summon the energy and did some strength training instead. Around 10 The kids and I made it to the gym. I have been avoiding putting Emerald in Child Sitting because she has cried the other times I have tried. Emerald’s doctor encouraged me to continue to try to help her with her stranger danger. She cried again today but the staff there were able to get her to calm down. I have such mom guilt about leaving her there if I think she will cry, it’s so hard.

Sucking it up today gave me a chance to get 3.2 progression miles in on the treadmill. Success.

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I loved Runner’s World Magazine’s feature called “How to Be a Runner”.

The idea is that you choose one topic from the category, and then explain some of your answers.

I loved it so much I thought I would play along with my own answers:

Let Me Explain:

Coffee, forever, one of my true loves. I like beer but I could live without it. Coffee before almost every run.

Living in Colorado sunglasses are a must for eye health, although I almost always run with a hat as well to keep my hair in check.

Running with friends or family is always more fun but with our crazy schedule I often run alone, I enjoy that as well.

I used to be a really bad heel striker and worked to become more if a forefoot runner.

I am a morning person by nature so morning is the best time for me to run. With this ultra training I hope to train in the evening as well as I will be running all.day.long

Lead would probably be more popular but I don’t always have the best way finding skills. At my last race I was so happy to follow other runners instead of trying to find trail markers.

I do love my Amazon but going to a local running store is the BEST. I like to support local small business and getting a shoe fit is so important.

I really didn’t think that things could get any better than last month when we celebrated Emerald’s first Christmas but this month has been even more magical. We had so much fun this last month and Emerald just adds so much light and happiness to our lives.

This month was full of adventure with a quick trip to Moab for a half marathon for me and a trip to Disneyland. Emmy was such a champ with all the traveling and schedule changes.

At ten months Emerald is 28.75 inches long (72% ) and 19 lbs 8 oz (63%) BMI 49%. Emmy is wearing size 3 diapers, and is wearing mostly 9 or 12 month size clothes but 9 month clothes are all reaching their end so I will have to put them away soon. I have a feeling we are headed for a growth spurt soon.

Also getting these monthly photos is getting harder and harder, all she wants to do is move and play with her stuffed animal.

She sure has changed the last ten months!

EAT

Eating is still coming along slowly for Emmy, she is eating soft solids when we feed her. She still isn’t feeding herself or holding her own bottle so we are working on that and hope that she will start making progress soon. Even though she won’t feed herself the food we give her she is always trying to steal her brother’s snacks.

SLEEP

Sleep is mostly going well. We have a really good routine with our daytime naps, she is still taking three a day. I love that she is on a good routine but I am also looking forward to working down the number of naps so we can be out and about more. It would also be nice to get her to sleep in longer and skip the morning nap. Most days she is up between 5:00 and 5:30 am. 6:30 to 7:00 would be nicer.

While we were traveling Emmy did a great job of napping on the go mostly in her stroller or in the Beco carrier.

While on our trip to Moab we learned that Emmy was NOT going to sleep in the pack n play so we knew not to bother bringing it to California. She was very happy to get to snuggle every night. I am surprised she slept at all in her crib when we got home.

GROW

Emmy is loving her independence now that she can crawl wherever she wants to go.

he is also constantly pulling herself up and has even started walking with push toys so I am not sure how much longer we have until she is walking.

Another big development this month is the appearance of teeth, or a tooth.

I like to call her fang since one of her upper teeth decided to come in all on it’s own. It’s normal but very uncommon for kids to get top teeth first, most get their bottom teeth first. Cannon also got his top teeth first so I guess it’s just in our genes. There are four top teeth about to come in and just a couple days ago one (just one!) bottom tooth popped through.

Emmy had a follow up eye appointment this month to be sure that her eyes are developing correctly. I was so excited to hear that everything looks good with her vision. This doesn’t mean that she won’t ever need glasses but her eyes are developing as they should so that makes us happy.

PLAY

Emmy had fun visiting Moab this month and hanging out with her cousins.

She is such a relaxed baby and just wants to hang out with her people.

I wasn’t sure how she would react to Disneyland. I was afraid she would be overwhelmed with all the noise and chaos and being away from everything she is used to. But she loved it! She loved the music, and people, and cuddles.

I loved taking Emmy to Disneyland and I can’t wait to do it again. Recaps from our trip HERE and HERE

We got to celebrate Valentine’s Day this month and it’s even more fun now that we have two kids to shower with love.

Emmy loved her card from her grandparents and going to a valentines party with Cannon.

We had one day with temperatures in the 50s so we ran out to the park to play while we could. I didn’t put her in warm enough pants to play in the sand so she is wearing Cannon’s back up pants that I keep in the diaper bag, haha! She loved playing outside with her brother so much. I can’t wait until spring/summer when we can get out to the parks more!

This week has been a bit of a doozy, we are all pretty sick (why does that always seem to happen post vacation), Emmy has been having trouble sleeping and she is teething. I am sure glad it’s Friday and I can share some favorites with you!

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I really love my Lululemon Vinyasa Scarf I wore this scarf everyday of our trip because it was cooler than I expected. It kept me nice and warm and dried fast when it got wet. I love that it has snaps so it can be worn it many different ways. It was also helpful on the trip home when Emerald’s blanket had bubble solution spilled on it. We used the scarf as a blanket for Emmy on the plane and she slept the entire way. I have also had it for years and it has washed well and kept it’s shape (I hang dry it).

On our last day in Disneyland we stopped at the Silhouette Studio where a very talented artist made cut silhouettes of Cannon and Emerald. You actually get two mirror images for just $10 each! I will treasure these forever. I just need to get frames and hang them up. I hope we can do this every time we visit and watch the kids grow.

Last week I was excited to open a package from Little Poppy Co. Little Poppy Co is a subscription bow service where you get a set of three bows each month. I started getting these for Emmy in August and have loved every set. They are seasonally themed and always so cute! They are reasonably priced and can be delivered with a band for little girls or clips for little ones with more hair. You can also convert the bands to clips later =)

And for your treadmill and Netflix: We binge watched Russian Doll this week. It’s a bit weird and dark and not safe for kids but it’s oddly addicting! Both Cory and I can’t wait for more episodes to be released so we can see what happens. Amy Poehler produced this and really can’t do any wrong.

Our sweet little Emmy has been teething this week, the last few nights she has woken up overnight clearly in pain. My heart breaks when it seems like she is in pain. It also shines a light on how easy we have had it that both kids started sleeping through the night very early on. Also we are just getting into teething now at almost ten months so others have to deal with this much earlier. While I hate that anything might hurt her we are all enjoying some extra cuddles.

In the morning we went to a Valentines party with Cannon’s little friends. He was pretty excited about eating a cupcake and playing.

You can see his little hand trying to steal chocolates. I remember Valentines Day being so fun when I was little and I love sharing it with the kids now too.

Because of the broken sleep I wasn’t feeling up to getting up at four am to run so after naps I bundled the kids up and we went for an afternoon jog.

Unfortunately after a few days of feeling under the weather I have completely lost my voice. It’s been an interesting challenge trying to parent with no voice.

Even with all the challenges I am pretty excited about this years running. I have been thinking long and hard about what I wanted my big goal to be for this year and I finally settled on a race! I considered a lot of different races and distances but nothing was feeling right. I wanted something big that would push me out of my comfort zone this summer. The race needed to be mid to late summer to give me enough time to train. It also needed to be before fall because we are going to Germany in late September and it would be too hard to keep up serious training while traveling for almost three weeks.

When I thought of Run Rabbit Run 50 it seemed to fit just right. I would have the entire summer to train, get into the mountains as much as possible and a little over a week to recover before our flight. This schedule feels right to me.

Yes I am starting my training now with 11 weeks of base building to build up my endurance and durability before starting a more specific 20 week training plan where I will focus on climbing, technical trails in May. I will start altitude training once the mountain trails thaw in the summer. Cory and I have already discussed how we want to take the kids camping in the mountains this summer and he is totally onboard for me running on trails while he hangs with the kids.

I am so excited to really start training again for a big goal race. I had a great time training and running the Arches Ultra Half Marathon back in January and after a few weeks of just running whatever, I am ready to be back on a plan training for something big and scary.

Back in January I attempted a a month long run streak, I did miss a couple days so I am hoping to really hit 100% of my goal this time. I am shooting for 50 days this time because I wanted a push goal and it fell in line with returning from vacation that 50 days would get me to the end of March.

Beating the winter running blues

I read a great article in No Meat Athlete about what he gained from a 50 day run streak and how it worked for him. He talked a bit about how the streak really helped with his lacking motivation. I feel really excited about training right now but sometimes the cold dark mornings are difficult and getting through February and March will lead to better running weather.

This last week was not my typical training week since we were out of town from Monday to Thursday. I promise I will stop talking about our trip to Disney after this recap!

I have finally decided on my A race for 2019 and I am pretty excited about it. Training starts officially this week.

I am linking up with Wendy and Michelle this week for a Weekly Wrap, go check out all the inspiring runners!

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Monday: 10.55 miles walking around Disneyland. This is not running specific training obviously but I am counting it as great time on my feet ultra training 😉

Tuesday: 10.22 miles waking around Disneyland again.

Wednesday: 10.18 miles walking around Disney California Adventure.

Thursday: Big fat zero, we flew home from California and were all pretty tired.

Friday: Finally home but the weather was crazy so I just did two shake out miles on the treadmill while the kids napped. I think my body forgot how to run a little bit so it was nice to keep it short for re-entry.

Saturday: 3.25 miles with the family. It was still pretty cold but I love running with Cory and the kids, especially since Cory does most of the stroller pushing.

Sunday: Got out midday for about 7.25 miles, it was just 25 degrees out so I was glad I didn’t try to get out too early.

All my miles have been pretty easy recently while I build my base up. It’s not the most exciting training but boring running is better than injured no running!

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Total Running + Walking Miles: 43.4 miles no strength or cross-training. Room for improvement as always, but I am happy with our vacation week.

Day three started our second day in Disneyland. It was another rainy morning but we made the most of it with our Magic Morning Pass. We got in an hour early but only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were open so it was pretty crowded.

We tried to hit all the rides and activities that we missed on day one. We also had to go back to Pirates because it was just so much fun. We did miss a few things we really wanted to do including riding the Rivers of America Boat and visiting Tom Sawyer’s Island. The island was often closed due to the rain, I guess that just saves us something new for our next visit =).

We had some great food for lunch but made sure to save room for the Kitchen Sink Sundae. This thing was huge and we were glad to have all five of us to help finish it. Cannon was actually really into eating this and he isn’t one to get excited about food.

We cleaned up the bowl and got a Minnie bowl (without the ice cream) to take home with us. I am looking forward to the kids eating ice cream out of these bowls when they are older and telling them about this trip.

Again we got epic stroller naps and cuddles from the kids.

We had the best time and Cannon was so brave on all the ride.

My mom had one request for the day and it was for Emerald to meet a princes. We had almost given up but as we were walking to dinner we found Ariel. My mom was right that even though the characters terrified her, she loved meeting a princess.

Her face says it all.

We had dinner in at the Grand Californian where I had the best burger ever! It was nice to sit and eat in the warmth and the kids did surprising well at a restaurant after such a busy day.

After dinner we said goodnight to my parents and headed back into Disneyland. We got to see some off Mickey’s Mix Magic projection show and it was really cute, but our main objective was to get to Autopia. We had been talking about letting Cannon drive there for so long and we couldn’t miss the opportunity. I felt like the ride had too many fumes and was too noisy for Emerald so we watched from the sideline. Cannon got to steer and had the best time.

On our last day at the parks we headed over to Disney California Adventure. The rain had passed and it was sunny and blue skies all day. This meant there were many more people in the park and it was much harder to get around, fast passes were selling out and lines were longer.

Grandma, Grandpa, Cannon and Emerald are in the red car!

We found there to be fewer rides at DCA that Cannon and Emmy could ride than in Disneyland. This is partially due to the fact the The Bugs Land used to be geared toward little kids has been closed. Although the new Marvel Land I hear that is to replace it doesn’t look like it is being built for toddlers. Even so we found plenty to do riding the Little Mermaid, the golden Zeppelins and the Grandparents took Cannon and Emerald on the ferris wheel while Cory and I got to ride the Incredicoaster. We had a blast but had to hurry to Cars Land to use a fast pass on Radiator Springs Racers.

Sadly Cannon and Emerald weren’t big enough to ride so Cory hung out with them in Cars land while the rest of us went to race (we lost). Cory said he didn’t like the ride that much so he didn’t mind missing it, I think he was just being nice. Mom and Dad had never ridden it before so it was important that they got to ride.

Cannon still had a good time seeing all the fun Cars in Cars Land.

We then spent a good amount of time at the Grizzly Peak Adventure area. Rides are great and fun but both Cannon and Emerald needed some time to run, play, climb and crawl. Mom and Dad even found sometime to ride some adult rides.

Then it was Midway Mania with the kids. In our last couple of visits to DCA we haven’t gone on Midway Mania because the lines have always been so long. They have added a fastpass now so the wait was more reasonable.

Cannon kind of got the idea of pulling the string on his shooter and made about 1% of his shots (I only did slightly better, LOL).

After that we went to Pacific Wharf for lunch. Then took our time wondering around with sleeping babies. After lunch and naps we lined up for the live Frozen show. Cannon wasn’t sure he was ready to be awake but we made the right call since he loved the show. Emmy loved the show too dancing a smiling to all the songs.

After the show we fit in a couple more rides including Mater’s and Monsters Inc.

We had dinner reservations at the Wine Country Trattoria . The restaurant was very pretty with excellent views but I would not go there again. We had to wait twenty minutes to be seated, even though we had reservations and the food was not that great.

After dinner Cory and I had fast passes for Mission Breakout. I loved this ride when it was Tower of Terror so I was excited to see if it was still as good. I would say the new overlay seemed to not quite fit but the animatronics were great and I thought the actual ride was even better! While we were on the ride Mom and Dad took the kids shopping. Cannon scored a bubble wand, I can’t wait for it to be warm enough for him to play with it in the back yard.

After that the park was closing, I felt like our time had gone so quickly and was sad to leave. I can only hope that we will be back in a couple of years.

Our fifth and final day of the trip was just a travel day. We spent the morning packing up and called an Uber for our 11am flight.

Emmy helping us pack

Cannon was still pretty excited about the planes.

On the way to California Cannon stayed up and watched movies. On the way home he passed out.

I guess we tired him out a bit this week.

We were so happy to get home and see the puppies that had been staying at my brother’s house.

The first picture was from when we dropped them off, the second the day before we picked them up. The weather changed a bit while we were gone. Coming home to seven degrees and six inches of snow was shock to the system.

Overall we had a great trip, it was more fun than I thought it would be. I would highly recommend taking a baby and a toddler to Disneyland, you may not get in as many rides as you used to but it’s so much more magical.

Our flight to Orange County left Denver at noon on Sunday so we had plenty of time to get up and get all packed into the car without having to get up too early. Even though our trip was only 5 days total it still seemed like we had to bring so many things. Traveling with a toddler and a baby is no joke. At least we knew from our last trip that Emmy was not going to sleep in a pack and play so we did not bother bringing one.

We had to pack carseats for both kids just so they could ride in a Uber to and from the airport in California. We were checking two suitcases and the carseats, I wanted to try Cannon just sitting in the airline seat and it worked out well. We pulled up and got in line to curb-check our luggage then Cory took Cannon to park the car while I had Emmy in the stroller that we gate-checked. I was worried about having a big double stroller in the airport but it was not a problem at all and much better than holding or trying to chase both kids through security and to our gate. Luckily my Mom and Dad showed up right as we were so I had an extra set of hands.

Emmy was pretty excited to have Grandma and Grandpa along for the adventure!

Cannon really enjoyed riding the bus after parking the car. It was a pretty epic day for him including planes, trains and automobiles. We picked up sandwiches from Einsteins Bagels to eat on the plane and made our way to the gate. There was just enough time to let Cannon run around and look at the planes and break down the stroller before it was time to board. We flew Southwest and didn’t pay for early seating, luckily family boarding did get us three seats together, we didn’t get a seat for Emmy as when we originally bought these tickets she was only four months old. She did great and slept the last couple hours of the flight in Cory’s arms. I am happy that when we fly again in September Emmy will have her own seat, she will be 17 months then!

The flight from Denver to Orange County (we flew to John Wayne airport instead of LAX because it’s closer to Disneyland) is just about three hours. I was a little nervous about how the kids would do on the plane but they both did great, neither of them cried at all. Cannon sat at the window and watched take-off and landing. For the middle part of the flight he happily watched movies on his tablet.

Cannon’s first flight! I still love seeing his name printed on anything.

We landed in California, got our luggage and ordered an Uber with no issue. It was a bit of a pain to have to install and remove both carseats for a 20 minute ride but it was necessary.

We got to our hotel about 3pm and unpacked a bit. A hotel room isn’t a great place to entertain a baby and toddler so we packed them into the stroller and headed for Downtown Disney. We intentionally planned to not go into the parks on our first day because we thought all the travel would be enough excitement for the kids. It was pretty fun to see the rides from outside the park! Our hotel was a little less than a mile from the entrance gates, it felt good to walk and not too far.

We met my parents and walked through Downtown Disney checking out all the shops and restaurants.

We decided to go to La Brea Bakery where I had the best clam chowder of my life.

After dinner we said our goodnights and rolled back to the hotel. Both kids were warm and snuggly so they fell asleep on the way back.

We got to bed as quickly as we could to rest up for our first day in Disneyland.

We started out or day with a Character Breakfast at the Grand Californian, where my parents were staying. While this was fun I wouldn’t do it again until the kids are both much older. The costumed characters were scary for both Cannon and Emmy plus the buffet was hard to navigate with a baby and toddler.

After breakfast it was time to head into Disneyland and we were all so excited!

The park was decorated for both Valentine’s Day and Mickey and Minnie’s 90th Birthday. It was all really cute.

We decided that It’s s Small World would be our first ride. We had heard that dark rides can be scary for some toddlers so we didn’t want to start with something that would put Cannon off all other rides.

Both Cannon and Emmy loved it and were ready to hit some more rides.

We had lunch in Toontown as we had heard some of the birthday food was worth trying. I especially liked the Minnie cupcake. Both kids had fallen asleep in the stroller so we let them nap for a while before it was time to play again!

Cannon enjoyed getting out to play and Emmy enjoyed lots of snuggles. I originally thought we might take a mid-day break back at the hotel for naps but both kids took great naps in the stroller so there was no need to leave the park.

You may have noticed from the photos that it was pretty rainy while we were there but we had some good rain gear and the stroller kept the kids warm and dry. It ended up being a good thing for us as we never had to wait in line more than twenty minutes.

We were so lucky to have my parents with us for this trip! Not only did we get to share the magic of the kids first trip to Disney with them but they also deepened their bond with these kiddos. Also they were kind enough to take the kids to do fun rides or go shop while Cory and I got a chance to do rides that were too big for the kids. Grandma and Grandpa got in their favorites too!

Some of Cannon’s favorites from the day were:

It’s a Small World

Pirates of the Caribbean ( I thought this might be too scary but he loved it)

Winnie the Pooh

Later we had dinner reservations at the Blue Bayou. If you haven’t been there it is the restaurant that is right at the begining of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It’s dark and fun to hear all the riders in the boats and the food is amazing.

After dinner my parents called it a night but we were still ready to have fun so we got in a few more rides including Alice in Wonderland which was my childhood favorite.

This time of year Disneyland closes pretty early at 8pm and we were headed out right before they closed. We would have liked to have watched the parade but you have to claim a spot really early and at nine months and two and a half years old my kids aren’t ready to sit and wait for an hour. Some things will just have to happen on later trips.

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Days 3-5 coming in another post.

Are you a big Disney person? I really do love Disneyland it has a really special place in my heart from when I was a child.

Cory and I also went just the two of us a couple times. I know some people think that’s odd but we loved it. We went for our second anniversary back in 2008.

We went again in the fall of 2015, that trip was really fun because they had all the Halloween decorations up.

That trip was extra special because on the last morning right before leaving for our flight I found out I was pregnant with Cannon. It made a fun trip that much more memorable (and explained why I was so tired and not feeling great, LOL).

We just got back from our trip to California, five days traveling and door busting at Disneyland was so much fun but also pretty exhausting.

We are all pretty glad to be home, especially since Cory seemed to come down with a cold as we were leaving and now the kids and I have it too.

It’s also nice that it’s Friday so hopefully we can take some time to put the house back together. Our two almost back to back trips has left us a little upside down.

I did not run at all during our trip, we didn’t have access to a gym and there wasn’t really time to run anyway. We walked over ten miles everyday so I call it good. I am happy to be back home and back to routine, too bad it was seven degrees and icy this morning!

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Here are some of my favorites from this week, many are from our Disneyland trip =)

These Nike Flex Contact shoes are so comfortable! We walked over 22,000 steps a day while visiting Disneyland and California Adventure. My feet felt great the entire time even though they were soaked most of the time!

I am in LOVE with these Tierra Sunglasses! They are comfortable, don’t fog up, are polarized and are only $20. Great find!

We love these Chobani Gimmies pouches. I love that they are low in sugar and easy to take with us, Cannon loves the flavors.

The Disneyland App is a must have if you are visiting the Disneyland Resort! It shows all the wait times, holds your tickets, you can mobile order food (skip the line!) and make reservations. You can also request Fast Passes for your entire party if you get the MaxPass, and I think it’s worth it for the MaxPass as well.

The iMuto Charger was a life saver! We knew from previous experience that even though the Disneyland App is awesome it also drains your battery. I asked for a portable charger for Christmas and Cory got me this one. I love that you can charge up to three devices at once and it charges quickly. The one downside is that it is pretty heavy but I think it’s worth it for a working phone.

Last but not least, I have talked about our Thule Chariot before but it gets a special shout out here. It rained a lot the first two days we were at Disneyland and it was pretty chilly. The built in rain cover kept the kids completely dry and warm all day. We also packed the diaper bag and extra jackets in the back and everything stayed dry. I was very impressed!

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I hope you all are having a fabulous Friday. Any favorites from your week?

It’s finally February! January is usually my least favorite moth of the year so it takes the longest to pass. With the holidays being over, and it being so cold and dark I start looking forward to spring early. I am trying not to wish the time away as Emmy’s first year is going way to fast!

I just read that this weekend we are half way between the winter solstice and spring equinox—we are half way there!

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In February I have a few goals I would like to accomplish:

Run 150 miles – I am not continuing my run streak goal into February because of our trip to Disneyland and I think running while we are in Disneyland would be really stressful to fit in. With that in mind I am setting a milage goal instead. I do plan to return to a 50 day streak when I return so that should be fun.

Strength train AT LEAST twice a week. This is a must do!

Spin Class twice a week (after this week, I get a pass while traveling)

Continue to write six days a week – This was a goal from January and I have really enjoyed writing more and sharing more from my day-to-day life. Now I just need to remember to take more photos.

Cook twice a week, three times would be better.

A quick check-in on how my goals from January went (you can see the original post HERE)

Run everyday in January, I talked about this more here. I would give myself an A- on this one. I think I missed 2 to 3 days and at first I felt like a failure because of that but when I think about it I did run at least 90% of the days in January and that is pretty good.

Write 6 days a week – hopefully this one will last for more than just January. You may have noticed that posts have been a lot more frequent here on this ‘lil old blog. One of the best ways to get better at something is consistent practice. So writing most days of the week will hopefully help me improve as well as create a fun way to look back at this time in life. We have such a fun adventurous year planned I want to capture it all. Again I think this deserves an A- I posted Monday -Saturday and I think I missed a Thursday. I am pretty pleased with that.

Cook dinner at least three days a week – Cory has always been our main cook, he is better at it and enjoys it more. But it’s nice for him to come home from work and get to play with the kids instead of start cooking straight away. Again hopefully practice leads to improvement. Hmmmmmm, I think I get a C- on this one. I did great the first couple of weeks then fell off the last 10 days, so I will say room for improvement and keep working on it.

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Do you set goals for yourself then check in on your progress? Any big goals for this month?